The personification of tech

Once upon a time, a mobile phone was simply a somewhat functional brick of a device.

--

It could make calls, and then it could make texts. Eventually, you could even browse a restrictive web space using whatever dreadful browser your mobile phone provider provided. I still remember the frustration of trying to navigate a few pages deep without a page load error on my Sony Ericsson’s iteration of the mobile web.

And then, things began to get clever, and the device that initially wouldn’t fit in your pocket developed that satisfying click as you flipped your screen with a well-practiced wrist movement, before reverting back to a lack of a hinge but more to say for itself. Your phone began to talk back to you.

The dialogue wasn’t verbal, at first at least, but there was definite communication. In 2008 the iPhone introduced us to an App Store that unified users, rather than segmenting people between whatever free trial of a game shipped with their phone, and snake, obviously. Now you could add your choice of software, and personalise your device with virtual koi ponds or eBay. The world was your oyster, and there’d probably be an app for that too soon.

The significance of this shift from a functional device to something that also provided entertainment was that companies like Apple could now begin to build a better picture of who you were. While there were applications you could download and buy before the App Store, the range of apps available on the App Store meant that Apple could understand what people liked, and get a better sense of their buyer personas.

This evolution in user customisation affected the whole mobile industry, and other mobile operating systems were releasing their alternatives to the App Store.

Other commercial technology sectors were evolving or had already developed in the same fashion as well, such as games consoles adding personal profiles so you could monitor your friends and achievements. This change isn’t a revelation, everyone knows this, but it’s important to understand the mentality of allowing you to imbue your personality into devices that tech companies were now fully embracing.

For a while then, any personality in your technology was an extension of your own; marketed as being personal, rather than a person. This development focus mirrored the way in which people were already creating and sharing content more and more in the age of social media and using their technology to access and publish this personal content.

Camera filters, more and more social media apps and even social sharing options integrated into games; nearly all Apps integrated this social media craze, a way to present your personality to the world.

And here we stand today; a world in which, on my commute home, I can see three different people sat in front of me swiping down a page and tapping intermittently on content. They’re giving the photo, video or text less than a few seconds of feedback, but are desperate to appear in the loop and so present their personality in the form of a like or a love heart.

Technology is always looking to innovate and evolve, so while this lifestyle has become second nature, where reflex has you remove your phone from your pocket, swipe right and load up your social media of choice before you even consider what you’re doing; another personality has entered your devices beyond your own. Customisation is no longer an impressive enough concept to advertise, so the new flavour of the month is artificial intelligence. Less welcome your new overlords, more welcome your new (Google home) assistant.

Long before the social media era, usability has always been something companies are constantly trying to improve upon in their products, beyond just the technology sector. If you can cut down on the amount of time and effort a customer needs to give to perform a function with your product, you’re creating a more positive user experience.

Before discussing AI, it’s worth mentioning an attempt at improving usability that harks back, in a commercial sense, to Dragon speech recognition software in the 90s. Dragon was and is dictation software, but it displayed the capabilities of being able to relay commands to your device without having to type or tap, which was a new layer of functionality. While the ability to do this featured in Vista and MacOS, it wasn’t until Microsoft’s Kinect that consumers were fully aware of it. Now, gamers could tell their Xbox to close an application or turn off.

In truth, this proved to be a bit of a flop, with the voice recognition technology struggling to make out voices amongst any background noise, or picking up on other people speaking and performing actions that you didn’t request.

Not to be deterred, one noticeable trend is that a lot of the companies who would be producing the next line of voice recognition software had also been responsible for personality in technology. Given its success, it’s clear a decision was made by Apple to transfer this sense of character into its new assistant software, Siri.

You only need to interact with Siri to witness its sense of humour and wit. It’s a brilliant marketing tool for Apple, with tonnes of advertising content for Siri being published by bemused users. The bemusement is essential because for the first time people were finding their technology wasn’t just a reflection of themselves. It could bite back, with jealousy if you mentioned a competitor.

Of course, there needed to be practical application beyond Siri’s, and it’s soon to be competitors’, novelty appeal. Speaking to these assistants, you can book meetings and check appointments, play music or start applications. All of this functionality couples with the fact that you’re talking to your phone as though it is a person and that the phone is responding back with personality. But this is all scripted, pre-determined responses written by whatever company is responsible for the tech. There’s no artificial intelligence here, just the appearance of such.

These devices aren’t only speaking to you either, but are also communicating with one another. The Internet of Things or IoT has brought about an age of connected devices, so you can use your phone to tell your thermostat that you’re going to be home soon. Of course, this interconnectivity brings with it a risk, as it invites an entirely new degree of destruction for would-be hackers, who can gain access and exploit the communication channels, gaining access to sensitive data.

Imagine a cyber criminal accessing the data provided by your smart thermostat, for example, and working out whether you’re home or not. I digress, but it’s evident data protection laws and security need to be updated before the IoT consumes more of our lifestyles.

Toyota’s Concept-i was unveiled at CES this year.

CES in Vegas this year showed something closer to real independent personality in the automotive industry. Toyota showcased a concept car that includes an AI called Yui. Rather than just reciting back dinner reservations or responding to a joke you googled, Yui’s headlights blink.

Let’s say you’ve had a long shift and just want to get home and relax. Yui will greet you with lights on the car doors as you approach, and detect your tiredness, adjusting the interior lighting as so to make it a more relaxing environment.

This intelligence is still programmed, scripted responses based upon data provided by you. Yui isn’t going to learn how to make the engine hum to the tune of Edelweiss without a software update, but it’s the fact that it’s always live and active that separates it from Siri and her cohorts.

Rather than requiring the user to illicit a response, Yui is always awake and always analysing. This activeness gives it a greater sense of being alive because you don’t have to push a button to bring it to life.

Of course, Yui is still a concept that may not, and based upon a lot of critical reception will not see the light of day. But it’s the mentality that matters; the notion that cars should have a personality that’s alive as long as you’re interacting with your vehicle.

Running side by side with the future of autonomous vehicles, this personality is the entryway of advertising connected cars to you. Come for the intelligent car that knows when you’re cold, stay for the in app/car purchases and advertisement opportunities that this software provides.

--

--